Speakers

Ahmed Shawky

Ahmed Shawky is Lead Expert Scientist, Data & AI at Arelion, which runs AS1299 — the Tier-1 backbone ranked the world’s #1 internet network.
He holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering and has spent 15+ years across network planning and data science.
He now builds Arelion’s automation and AI layer

Andreas Bækdahl

Andreas Baekdahl is a Senior DevNet Architect in Wingmen Solutions’ Automation Factory. With more than 20 years of experience in the networking industry, including the last 12 years advancing the adoption of automation within engineering and consultancy teams, he helps fellow engineers improve day-to-day operations and project delivery through automation, tooling, and modern workflows.

Working hands-on with Python, Terraform, and NetDevOps, Andreas delivers everything from ad hoc automation tools to large-scale automation projects. His background spans both traditional networking and modern automation, leading to the achievement of four CCIE certifications and the CCDE certification.

Andreas is also the founder of ccie-automation.com, where he teaches automation to network engineers globally.

Bart Dorlandt

Bart Dorlandt is the owner of Dream Networking and Automation.

For 20 years, Bart has expressed his love for networking as an engineer, designer, and architect, diving into every bit and byte all the way to CCIE.
Over the last decade, he has driven automation through programming and tooling, always asking: “there must be a better way.”
He has contributed to large international companies and startups, combining innovative thinking, social presence, and a passion for technology.
Bart is also active in the community, hosting NLNAM (net-auto.nl) and PyUtrecht, and serving on the advisory board of the Network Automation Forum.

Constantin VURLI

Constantin is a Network Automation Consultant at CNS Communications, based in Paris.

His path started in cybersecurity, then moved through observability into automation, writing code the whole way through.
That progression shaped how he thinks about infrastructure : understand it, watch it, then automate it right.
He’s run audits, roadmaps, design, implementation and troubleshooting engagements across a wide range of industries and client sizes, from large sensitive enterprises to smaller, more agile setups, always tailoring the automation to fit the client rather than the other way around.
His current focus is extending network automation into global service catalogs, breaking down the boundaries between network, systems, and application domains, and between cloud and on-premise environments. For Constantin, the hardest part of automation isn’t the tooling. It’s getting people to change how they work and think.

Damien Garros

Damien Garros is an architect, engineer, and leader with deep expertise in infrastructure automation, data management, and networking.
Over the last 15 years working at companies like Juniper, Apstra, Roblox, and Network to Code, he’s built a reputation for designing systems that make automation trustworthy by getting the data right first.
Damien has architected and contributed to dozens of open source projects now widely used across the industry.
Known for his clear thinking and forward-looking vision, he’s also recognized for a leadership style rooted in candor and curiosity.
Damien is the co-founder and CEO of OpsMill, creators of Infrahub, the infrastructure data management platform.

Emil Commerou

Emil Commerou is a DevNet Engineer at Wingmen Solutions with close to 20 years in Cisco networking and the last 7 spent turning that experience into automation and Python development.

He is a core developer of wingpy, the Python library that makes Cisco network automation accessible to everyone. He has spent years running hackathons, Code Café sessions, and hands-on workshops that have taught over 100 engineers how to work smarter.

For Emil, automation only scales when people want to use it. Create a spark of curiosity and the engineer will help themselves to the buffet of knowledge.

Off work, he trades the keyboard for a whistle and cleats as a UEFA B-licensed football coach, currently leading the U19 squad at Brønshøj Boldklub.

Kristoffer Larsen

Kristoffer Larsen is a B2C Network Engineer at TeliaCompany with 30 years of experience in service provider networking.
Having started his career in the dial-up era, he has worked with technologies spanning multiple generations of carrier networks, from early MPLS deployments when the technology was still known as Tag Switching to modern Segment Routing based architectures.
Throughout his career, he has been involved in the design, in the development, and in the operation of service provider infrastructure across the Scandinavian market.
His automation journey began with PHP and Perl long before network automation became mainstream, focusing on building operational tools around a Single Source of Truth.
Over time, this evolved into large-scale automation platforms and network orchestration systems.
Today, his network automation work is centered around Cisco NSO where the programming language Erlang has become a key tool for building highly concurrent and efficient automation solutions. Beyond automation, he has extensive experience in broadband architecture and in mass-market service design, including BNG-based access networks that serve large customer populations.
He is always up for sharing practical lessons learned from combining decades of operational networking experience with modern automation practices.

Marcus Hoff

Marcus Hoff is an infrastructure and network engineer with 20+ years of experience building, operating and occasionally breaking production systems.
He is co-founder of Echo Reply, which builds infrastructure tools for network engineers, and founder of HG Fabian.
These days, he spends much of his time figuring out how much real work AI agents can take on, including how far autonomous agents can safely be trusted with real infrastructure.

Göran Edin

Göran Edin is CTO and Network Automation Architect at Ductus, working with service providers and enterprises.
He’s been in the industry since 1993 and has a particular fondness for understanding the real problem behind a customer’s pain—and automating things that people really shouldn’t have to do manually.

Göran believes good automation is as much about people and processes as it is about technology. He still codes to understand how things work, but wisely stays away from production systems.

When he’s not talking about network automation—and he’s not particularly known for being quiet—he enjoys hiking in the mountains and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And, of course, generally agrees that knowing where your towel is a good start.

Niclas Skøtt Petersen

Niclas is a Network Automation Specialist with a strong background in service provider and enterprise networking.

His work focuses on network automation, Python, APIs, and infrastructure tooling, with an emphasis on building practical, maintainable solutions that improve reliability and reduce manual work.
He enjoys sharing real-world experiences from the intersection of networking, software engineering, and automation.

Urs Baumann

Urs Baumann has been speaking on network automation for over ten years, which has given him plenty of opportunity to form strong opinions and become a bit grumpy about it.
He is a Solution Architect, network automation engineer, and university lecturer, working across network infrastructure, Python, data models, testing, and the occasional uncomfortable question about whether something is actually automation or just a complicated script.
Urs is also an open-source maintainer of NUTS (Network Unit Testing System), an unsurprising project for someone who has spent considerable time arguing that automation should probably be tested. He also maintains Pydantify and several Nornir plugins, including nornir-rich.
After more than a decade in the field, Urs remains convinced that network automation can be done better. He is still trying to figure out exactly how much of that conviction is experience and how much is simply getting grumpy.

Wim Henderickx

Mr. Wim Henderickx is the CTO of the IP Division at Nokia, based in Belgium. He is active across various domains, including service providers, enterprise networks, and hyperscalers.

With over 30 years of experience in the communications and networking industry, Mr. Henderickx is a frequent speaker at technical conferences worldwide. He is actively involved in standards development organizations and contributes to multiple open-source projects.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering (Data Communications) and a Master’s degree in Economics. Mr. Henderickx is also a Bell Labs Fellow.